


Coding

by betweenthepages



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-11
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-08 09:02:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1130742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betweenthepages/pseuds/betweenthepages
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a mission goes south and Melinda is seriously injured, Phil calls in the people he knew would want to say goodbye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coding

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place a few months after, and contains spoilers for, 1x11.

Phil sees it coming before it actually happens. He's watching the security feed when he spots a sniper in the window, aiming for Skye, who is extracting files from the mainframe. From the tilt of Melinda's head, she's spotted it too. There's a flurry of activity over comms as May sprints for Skye, yelling at her to get down and yelling the location of the sniper at Ward. Then the gunshots ring out. One. Two. Three. He hears Skye scream, then a different gunshot. Ward confirms the sniper is down.

Phil bursts out of the van, radioing Simmons to get the table ready. He meets them halfway. Ward comes first, cradling a body in his arms, behind him, Skye is covered in blood but still diligently covering his back. She holds it together just long enough to hand him the hard drive with the files, then her facade cracks.

The voices of Fitzsimmons blare over the comm, asking for information. Ward tells them to meet everyone at the hospital. This is nothing Simmons can fix, and none of them are skilled enough pilots that they could maneuver the Bus as quickly as the situation demands. 

They're in southwestern China and all the hospital can do is Medevac her. Phil tells them Bangkok, not Hong Kong. He remembers her voice as she tells him how both of her parents died in the same hospital there. She wouldn't want those memories when she woke up.

He directs Ward to liaise with the China office to get the Bus, himself, and Fitzsimmons to Bangkok. When the Medevac plane takes off, Phil and Skye are settled on either side of Melinda, Skye's head bowed in prayer.  
\---------------------------

"How is she?"

"Bad. She coded in the plane. She's in surgery now. How soon can you get Barton and Romanoff to Bangkok?" His voice is icily professional.

"You know that's not possible."

"Hill, if you won't call them, I will."

"I can't --"

"We have to prepare for the possibility. They should at least get to say goodbye to Melinda." His voice barely wavers, but Hill doesn't miss the implied "the way they never did with me." 

"Phil-"

"Maria, please. I'll stay out of sight."

She sighs. "They're with Stark in the Maldives. I'll see if he'll let them use the jet. I'm flying out to you now." She hung up without leaving room for negotiation. 

She was the last person Phil wanted to see.  
\---------------------------------

Skye looked subdued as she sat in the hallway outside the operating room, but her eyes turned to fire when she spotted Coulson walking towards her.

"What was she thinking? I don't need to be protected! When is she going to stop seeing me as the baby of the team? Now I'm here and she's in there fighting for her life when she didn't need to be!"

"She was thinking that we needed those files, you were the only one who could get them, and you were in a wide open room with nothing to shield you." He reached for her, and her yells turned into muffled sobs. "She respects your skills, Skye, and she respects you. She wouldn't have done what she did otherwise. May doesn't lose people, and she doesn't leave them behind. It's one of those things that made her a legend. And you need to respect her choices, and honor that choice. Those files you got are what will lead us to the people who did this to her. Do you understand?"

He feels Skye nod into his chest. "I want you to go get cleaned up, then I want you to hack into the hospital's security feed. Can you do that for me?" She nods again.

\----------------------------------

When Melinda comes out of surgery, Phil barely gets a minute to squeeze her hand before he has to duck away. She'd coded again in surgery but made it through. The doctors say it's touch-and-go, and it's all he can do not to sit by her bedside and will her awake. But Skye's voice lets him know that Barton and Romanoff are here, and that's his cue to leave the room and let them sit by her.

\------------------------------------------

He's commandeered the hospital's security room on behalf of SHIELD, and watches as Clint and Tasha enter the room, drawn to Melinda's side instantly. He can tell that Maria has briefed them from the way they came in just barely leaning on each other for support, from the way Tasha reaches out to brush Melinda's hair out of her face. He draws in a deep, trembling breath.

He had always been Strike Team Delta's handler, but he remembers well that one fateful day when one of their missions went south. Natasha was still proving herself then, Clint still mistrustful of other people around her, and he himself had been knocked unconscious and drugged. It was clear SHIELD thought the team had turned. When it became clear that they'd received bad intel and something was terribly fishy, Clint had remembered Phil telling him that if they couldn't contact him, to contact Agent Melinda May -- not to contact SHIELD, but to contact Melinda.

Her instincts had always been spot on, and how quickly she trusted Clint and Natasha and found the source of bad intel had been astonishing. Melinda had scrambled a Quinjet and flown into Tokyo to extract all three of them herself, taken a bullet for Natasha in the process, and gotten them safely out and back to HQ. To this day none of them knew how she'd done it, but no one at HQ ever formally reprimanded them for going off the books on that mission. Not a single person ever again questioned where the loyalty of the team lay.

Fury had yelled, but only briefly, and Phil knew that he was just thanking his lucky stars that two of SHIELD's most formidable partnerships -- Clint and Tasha and Melinda and himself -- had teamed up for good instead of evil. Had anyone at HQ known Melinda was behind SHIELD's most legendary pranks, they would have shuddered to think of her and Barton teaming up, Barton's pranks having become well known over the past few years. No one ever suspected Melinda.

Her impressive loyalty that day -- and her willingness to believe in Natasha so much that she would defend her with her life -- rendered her near and dear to Barton from that day forward. Phil remained their primary handler, but when he was unavailable, Melinda stepped in. Even when she wasn't on active duty with them they'd find her touches smoothing the way -- a suspiciously empty Quinjet hangar, a set of new knives waiting on Tasha's desk, a bottle of Scotch waiting along with their paperwork on their return.

She grew distant after Bahrain, and never again came out on active duty with them, but still found time to spar with Romanoff and play darts with Barton. Phil recalled with a smile the time they'd come home from Budapest -- a mission that would have required an enormous amount of paperwork -- only to find all of it either waived or filed, the papers stamped with the initials MM. Aside from Phil, none of the four made friends easily, but he knew that both Clint and Tasha counted Melinda among their few friends, and if this was the end, they'd want to be there.

Looking at Clint and Natasha's faces over the security feed, he knew he'd made the right choice calling them in. According to Hill's report they had passed their psych evals after his death, but that meant nothing. If they thought him dead -- knowing that they'd never get to say goodbye -- then the very least they deserved was the chance to say goodbye to someone who had also been dear to them.

\----------------------------

Phil flinches when Maria walks into the hospital room, but softens when he saw the look on her face. He knew she'd counted Melinda as a mentor and a friend. She hadn't come to make sure Barton and Romanoff never found out about Phil. She'd come to say goodbye to someone she loved.

For just a split-second, looking at Melinda lying in the hospital bed, and watching the three hover around her, he wondered about Fury's decision to keep him alive against all odds. Few people understood what the trust between partners at SHIELD, and he and Melinda had been closer than most. For the slightest moment he knew what it must have been like for Nick, faced with the prospect of losing his one good eye. The moment passes as he realizes that if Melinda had been there, seeing him beg to die as they struggled to revive him, she would have pulled the plug out of mercy. Out of love for him. She would have been willing to grieve over his loss with the comfort of knowing he was at peace, rather than pull him back into a life he was unwilling to live just so she could have him by her side.

Her medical directive was clear. No extreme measures. If it came down to it, he would find the strength to let her go.

\-----------------------------

Clint and Natasha rounded on Maria as soon as she entered.

"What the hell was she doing in the field?"

"After the Battle of New York we --"

"You needed people." Nat's voice is resigned.

"You forced her out into the field? With who?"

"Ward. Fitz. Simmons. A civilian consultant, Skye, who she took the bullets for."

"They're children. How could you?"

"I think she said that they're idiot babies, but they're her idiot babies." Hill's lips curve for a split second. "Don't tell me she wasn't combat ready. I've seen you two sparring."

Both Clint and Natasha fell silent. Tasha sighs. "That does sound like Mel."

All three look over at Melinda, lying still and pale on the bed.

"What I don't understand is how you got her back on the field. You know how long we've --"

"How long you've tried to get her back out. Trust me, I know. Do you think Fury was happy having the Cavalry sitting behind a desk when --"

"Don't call her that." They turned to face Skye, her voice withdrawn, her eyes red.

From the safety of the security room, Phil sighed. He'd sent her back to the Bus to retrieve the others once they landed, with strict orders that they all stay in the waiting room until they'd been briefed. He sat back and watched the four of them face off, itching to go and join them.

\-------------------------------

"You must be Skye." Hill's voice is gentler than she had imagined. They introduce themselves by first name only, though from the way Coulson had told her not to give away his presence, Skye had her suspicions about their identities.

She moves past them and goes to stand by the bed, reaching for May's hand. Clint comes to stand by her.

"Join the club," he offers. The other two nod wryly.

"The club of people Melinda has gotten herself shot for," Hill clarifies. 

"She took a bullet for me in Tokyo." The redhead doesn't mention that she repaid the debt a year later in Rio.

"Bahrain." Hill said, and Skye didn't miss the flicker of sorrow that passed through all of their eyes. There was a beat of silence.

"To be fair, she only took a few darts for me." (They'd gone drinking and someone had grown irate at Hawkeye never missing at darts despite growing progressively drunker. Darts had gone flying and Melinda had moved instinctively to shield Nat and Clint. Phil had shown up just in time to see Nat pulling darts out of Melinda's arm, and Clint sitting on the chest of some guy pinned to the floor, looking furious.)

Skye's mouth twitches. "Who else is there?"

"Tori Hand. She was furious with Melinda for putting herself in harm's way." Nat bit back a smile at the memory.

"And Phil, of course. The number of times those two have gotten hurt defending the other." Clint reaches for Tasha's hand. "And working alongside us, of course." For just a slight moment the sorrow floods their faces, and Skye can guess at the history the four share, laid clear across their faces. As quick as it came, the sorrow fades, replaced with composure.

\---------------------------------

Skye wakes to machines beeping and May struggling against the tubes. Hill runs to get the doctor, while Clint and Natasha hold her down. Skye babbles.

"May, it's okay. Ward's outside, probably punching things. Fitzsimmons somehow got into one of the hospital labs. I think they're working on a supersuit for you. It's okay."

Melinda's eyes widen as she notes the familiar feeling of the hands in either one of hers. Tasha bent down to give her a kiss on the forehead. Clint squeezed her hand. Both of them notice her looking around, as if expecting someone else to be there.

Natasha is the first to put two and two together. Mel being back in the field. The Bus. The rag-tag team of children. Skye. Clint and her being called in. The shape of Melinda's lips as she tries to form her first word after the tube is removed from her mouth.

She turns to glare at Hill. "I know exactly how you got Melinda back into the field."

Tasha very slowly and deliberately walks up to the camera mounted in the corner of the room. "Phil, Melinda's asking for you."

 

\-----------

Phil walks into the hallway to find Ward, Fitzsimmons, and Skye facing off with Clint and Natasha. The nursing staff won't let all of them in at once. He sees Ward draw himself up and very quietly go "with all due respect, sir, we're her team."

Even Melinda would have teared up had she heard Nat's soft reply of "so are we."

Phil strides towards them and holds up a finger. "Once Hill is done in there, Ward, you, Skye, and Fitzsimmons can have ten minutes. No brooding. No talking her head off. No fussing, do you understand? Take them back to the Bus afterwards. Clint, Natasha, and I will stay the rest of the night."

He adds "we could all do with some healing" under his breath.

Clint and Natasha look at him with a mix of fury and betrayal and hope. It was the last one that cut right through him. 

\----------------------

Whatever issues they still have when they walked into the ICU were brushed aside momentarily at the sight of Melinda, still pale but conscious. Clint bursts out into tentative laughter as he notes the teddy bear in her arms and the stack of Disney movies by the bed. It's a welcome noise.

"The kids were worried," May offers by way of explanation. Her eyes soften even more at the sight of Phil, and she holds out a hand for him.

Clint very gently shifts her on the bed and Phil crawled in beside her, careful to avoid the many wires still monitoring her. "I thought..."

"So did I." She knows exactly what he thought. She knows he would have let her go had she asked. But looking at Clint and Natasha with her hands intertwined in theirs, and Phil's body next to hers, she's glad it wasn't today.

Melinda drifts off around three in the morning, one hand on Clint's as he dozed off next to her. With only Natasha sitting guard, Phil wept.

When he is done, Tasha reaches out and brushes the tears off his cheek, a gentle, simple reminder that not all was lost after all.

When Phil and Melinda wake up, Clint and Natasha are gone.

\---------------------

The Bus hangar is surprisingly quiet when they return. Phil's glad. Melinda wouldn't want the audience.

The four kids come out to meet them, Ward wordlessly reaching over to help May out of Lola. It's a good thing his grasp on her is still firm as Skye all but throws herself at May, remembering at the last moment to be gentle. 

There's a slight curve to Melinda's lips as she hands the teddy bear back to Jemma, pausing for a hug when she sees the tears glistening in her eyes. Fitz holds a somewhat lopsided cake, typical for goods baked in their little oven.

After thanking them profusely for the warm welcome home, Phil helps her up to his room, settling her on his bed as he checks that all is clear for take off. He chuckles at the memo from Hill that while their paperwork should be considered done for this mission, for future reference having the Black Widow and Hawkeye harass Level 3 agents to settle paperwork is not appropriate.

It is Melinda who notices a piece of paper fluttering from his vent. He opens it to reveal a bottle of scotch, reading the attached note out loud: 

You owe us an extraction (or three).  
Next time in Tokyo,  
NR and CB

As Melinda's eyes glitter mischievously, Phil heaves a quiet sigh of relief.

They had a long way to go, but maybe they'd all be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> I originally planned on letting her go, but I just couldn't bear killing off Melinda May. Also, as you can tell, I have a super soft spot for May/Coulson + Barton/Romanoff fics.
> 
> The phrase "they're idiot babies, but they're her idiot babies" is from a headcanon written by skyestan.tumblr.com.


End file.
